Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 16 December (HL Deb Col 661), (1) how many, and (2) what proportion of, NHS staff have taken up the offer of a flu vaccination this year; and how does that compare to each of the previous five years for (a) total NHS staff and (b) NHS staff by job category.

For England, the UK Health Security Agency publishes monthly provisional vaccine uptake data for frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) from November to March. The most recent monthly data was published on 18 December 2025 and includes all vaccinations given between 1 September to 30 November 2025. For the 2025 to 2026, and 2024 to 2025 seasons HCWs have been eligible from 1 and 3 October respectively, rather than 1 September as in previous seasons. Data is therefore not comparable with seasons prior to 2024 to 2025.

Vaccine uptake data, both percentages and numbers vaccinated, is given at a national, regional, and trust level, with data by staff groups, as percentages, also given. For previous seasons the available data by staff group varies and some previous seasons have numbers vaccinated available. The table attached shows the seasonal influenza vaccine uptake amongst frontline HCWs in National Health Service trusts in England, at a national and staff group level, for vaccinations given between 1 September, where applicable, and 30 November, for the 2020 to 2026 seasons. The numbers vaccinated are based on response rates from NHS trusts and are not extrapolated to represent 100% of the data.

Final end of season vaccine uptake data is published in the annual reports in late spring and include data on staff groups. Annual reports include national level comparative data from 19 previous seasons.